Getting Into The Import/Export Compliance Field

Dear Import/Export Compliance Manager,

Should I attempt the Customs Brokers Exam with absolutely zero experience in the field?  I’m majoring in Economics with an emphasis in international trade and want to pursue a career in trade compliance after graduation this December. I want to dedicate the summer to studying and attempt the exam this coming October. Is this a good idea or am I getting ahead of myself? How did you get your foot in the field?

Aspiring in Arizona

Dear Aspiring,

The answer to your first two questions is a resounding ‘yes’!  As you know, the Customs Broker’s Exam has no experience requirement to take it and, better yet for those outside the trade, doesn’t require any advance knowledge to pass the darn thing.  So, as stated in a previous blog post, “A noob, such as the then-25 year-old Import/Export Compliance Manager, could have a certification that many people, who had more years of import compliance experience than years the Import/Export Compliance Manager had been alive, did not.” 

Granted, a Customs Broker’s License alone does not an awesome import/export compliance person make but it sure looks good on the resumé.  Not only that, it shows that you are actually committed to entering the field of import/export compliance.  Your resumé, when applying for a job, will stand out over all of the other applicants who have no experience and also show no inklings of even knowing what import/export compliance is.  Taking the broker’s exam requires a fairly significant time commitment if you’re going to do it properly; the hiring managers who have taken the exam know this and appreciate it.  The Import/Export Compliance Manager’s mentor and one of the best analysts that the Import/Export Compliance Manager ever worked with both got their starts in the field with zero experience, but with a U.S. customs broker’s License in-hand.

If you haven’t already, read these two posts for more thoughts on the exam:

Should I Take The Customs Broker’s Exam? http://www.becktc.com/#!Should-I-Take-The-Customs-Brokers-Exam/c21xo/550799470cf2458597d4ef2d

Advice For Passing The Customs Broker’s Exam  http://www.becktc.com/#!Advice-For-Passing-The-Customs-Brokers-Exam/c21xo/5510b8290cf21e26baa609c1

Now, to answer your third question, the Import/Export Compliance Manager will deign to write in first-person.  Simply, I broke into the field by being at the right place at the right time.  As the philosopher Seneca is purported to have said, “Luck is a matter of preparation meeting opportunity.”  I had been working as an Inside Sales Representative for a high tech company for two years after graduating from college with a bachelor’s in political science with minors in computer science and economics.  I was determined that, if I were still in Sales after three years, I would go to grad school.  Well, a new position was created in the Trade Compliance Department for an analyst to help handle an increasing number of imports as well as provide in-house classification expertise.  I wasn’t even looking within the company for a new job; my manager’s manager was the one who clued me, as well as a few others, in on the existence of the position. 

As a candidate, even without import/export compliance experience, I came with three advantages.  First was that, being in Sales for two years, I was already familiar with all of the company’s highly-technical products.  All I had to do was learn how to properly classify them.  Second, and more importantly, I was a good culture fit, meaning that I operated well within the company.  All companies have a particular culture and, quite often, if you don’t fit in or ‘get’ the culture, you won’t be happy and won’t last long.  Thirdly, I was a known quantity, meaning that rather than depend on my resumé, interview and biased references to learn who I was, all the hiring manager needed to do was to talk to my manager and people in the company who had worked with me.  This greatly reduced the hiring manager’s risk of making a poor choice (which can be quite destructive and expensive).  I was lucky that the growing company provided me with an opportunity; however, I was also sufficiently prepared to take it.

For you, Aspiring, do whatever you can to be prepared so that you, too, can take advantage of opportunities that you may find or have dropped into your lap.  Taking the Customs Broker’s Exam is the obvious first step, though far from the easiest.  Reading this blog is an easy second step, of course!  If you can’t find an import/export compliance position, just get a position with a company that has a import/export compliance department.  Do well in whatever position you are hired for and then, when the Import/Export Compliance Department has an opening, you are there as a potential candidate (Note: Read The Import/Export Compliance Manager’s favorite career book, What Color Is Your Parachute?, for excellent advice on getting hired).  And in the meantime, anything else you can do to learn more about import/export compliance and separate yourself from all the other job seekers, do it.  Best of luck to you!